Horry County student says cop assaulted, falsely arrested him at school, suit states

A cop assaulted a Socastee High student by taking him to the ground and wrongfully arrested the teen in 2016, according to a new lawsuit.

Salim Sessions' mother filed the lawsuit in Horry County last week. It names Scott O'Brien, a Horry County School employee, Officer Christopher Choe and the Horry County Police Department as defendants.

On May 26, 2016, a fight broke out in a hallway in the school between two students. Sessions was walking to class and Choe stopped him and demanded Sessions say why students were loud, according to the filing.

Sessions refused to answer and Choe demanded he put his hands behind his back, the filing states.

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Sessions put his hands in the air and said he had nothing to say, the suit argues. Choe took Sessions to the ground and pushed on his head with his knee. O'Brien came to help the officer by holding Session's feet.

The two took Sessions into custody and placed him in a room for two hours without calling his parents, the suit contends.

Police charged Sessions with disorderly conduct and administrators suspended him from school. The disorderly charge was eventually dismissed, the lawsuit states.

The suit alleges that Sessions was falsely arrested and imprisoned. It also argues he faced malicious prosecution and his rights were violated. Pushing Sessions down and "pressing [his] head against the cement floor" constituted assault and battery, the filing alleges.

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